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The 55 miles from Campbell to San Francisco make for one of the nicest commutes anywhere. The journey mostly zips along the Junipero Serra Freeway, a grand and remarkably empty highway that abuts the east side of the Santa Cruz Mountains. It is one of the best places in Silicon Valley to spot a start-up tycoon speed-testing his Ferrari and one of the worst places for cellphone reception. For Andy Grignon, it was therefore the perfect place for him to be alone with his thoughts early on Jan. 8, 2007.
This wasn't Grignon's typical route to work. He was a senior engineer at Apple in Cupertino, the town just west of Campbell. His morning drive typically covered seven miles and took exactly 15 minutes. But today was different. He was going to watch his boss, Steve Jobs, make history at the Macworld trade show in San Francisco. Apple fans had for years begged Jobs to put a cellphone inside their iPods so they could stop carrying two devices in their pockets. Jobs was about to fulfill that wish. Grignon and some colleagues would spend the night at a nearby hotel, and around 10 a.m. the following day they — along with the rest of the world — would watch Jobs unveil the first iPhone.
But as Grignon drove north, he didn't feel excited. He felt terrified. Most onstage product demonstrations in Silicon Valley are canned. The thinking goes, why let bad Internet or cellphone connections ruin an otherwise good presentation? But Jobs insisted on live presentations. It was one of the things that made them so captivating. Part of his legend was that noticeable product-demo glitches almost never happened. But for those in the background, like Grignon, few parts of the job caused more stress.
Grignon was the senior manager in charge of all the radios in the iPhone. This is a big job. Cellphones do innumerable useful things for us today, but at their most basic, they are fancy two-way radios. Grignon was in charge of the equipment that allowed the phone to be a phone. If the device didn't make calls, or didn't connect with Bluetooth headsets or Wi-Fi setups, Grignon had to answer for it. As one of the iPhone's earliest engineers, he'd dedicated two and a half years of his life — often seven days a week — to the project.
Grignon had been part of the iPhone rehearsal team at Apple and later at the presentation site in San Francisco's Moscone Center. He had rarely seen Jobs make it all the way through his 90-minute show without a glitch. Jobs had been practicing for five days, yet even on the last day of rehearsals the iPhone was still randomly dropping calls, losing its Internet connection, freezing or simply shutting down.
"At first it was just really cool to be at rehearsals at all — kind of like a cred badge," Grignon says. Only a chosen few were allowed to attend. "But it quickly got really uncomfortable. Very rarely did I see him become completely unglued — it happened, but mostly he just looked at you and very directly said in a very loud and stern voice, 'You are [expletive] up my company,' or, 'If we fail, it will be because of you.' He was just very intense. And you would always feel an inch tall." Grignon, like everyone else at rehearsals, knew that if those glitches showed up during the real presentation, Jobs would not be blaming himself for the problems. "It felt like we'd gone through the demo a hundred times, and each time something went wrong," Grignon says. "It wasn't a good feeling."
The preparations were top-secret. From Thursday through the end of the following week, Apple completely took over Moscone. Backstage, it built an eight-by-eight-foot electronics lab to house and test the iPhones. Next to that it built a greenroom with a sofa for Jobs. Then it posted more than a dozen security guards 24 hours a day in front of those rooms and at doors throughout the building. No one got in without having his or her ID electronically checked and compared with a master list that Jobs had personally approved. The auditorium where Jobs was rehearsing was off limits to all but a small group of executives. Jobs was so obsessed with leaks that he tried to have all the contractors Apple hired — from people manning booths and doing demos to those responsible for lighting and sound — sleep in the building the night before his presentation. Aides talked him out of it.
Grignon knew the iPhone unveiling was not an ordinary product announcement, but no one could have anticipated what a seminal moment it would become. In the span of seven years, the iPhone and its iPad progeny have become among the most important innovations in Silicon Valley's history. They transformed the stodgy cellphone industry. They provided a platform for a new and hugely profitable software industry — mobile apps, which have generated more than $10 billion in revenue since they began selling in 2008. And they have upended the multibillion-dollar personal-computer industry. If you include iPad sales with those for desktops and laptops, Apple is now the largest P.C. maker in the world. Around 200 million iPhones and iPads were sold last year, or more than twice the number of cars sold worldwide.
The impact has been not only economic but also cultural. Apple's innovations have set off an entire rethinking of how humans interact with machines. It's not simply that we use our fingers now instead of a mouse. Smartphones, in particular, have become extensions of our brains. They have fundamentally changed the way people receive and process information. Ponder the individual impacts of the book, the newspaper, the telephone, the radio, the tape recorder, the camera, the video camera, the compass, the television, the VCR and the DVD, the personal computer, the cellphone, the video game and the iPod. The smartphone is all those things, and it fits in your pocket. Its technology is changing the way we learn in school, the way doctors treat patients, the way we travel and explore. Entertainment and media are accessed and experienced in entirely new ways.
And yet Apple today is under siege. From the moment in late 2007 that Google unveiled Android — and its own plan to dominate the world of mobile phones and other mobile devices — Google hasn't just tried to compete with the iPhone; it has succeeded in competing with the iPhone. Android has exploded in popularity since it took hold in 2010. Its share of the global smartphone market is approaching 80 percent, while Apple's has fallen below 20 percent. A similar trend is under way with iPads: in 2010 the iPad had about 90 percent of the tablet market; now more than 60 percent of the tablets sold run Android.
What worries Apple fans most of all is not knowing where the company is headed. When Jobs died in October 2011, the prevailing question wasn't whether Tim Cook could succeed him, but whether anyone could. When Jobs ran Apple, the company was an innovation machine, churning out revolutionary products every three to five years. He told his biographer, Walter Isaacson, that he had another breakthrough coming — a revolution in TV. But under Cook, nothing has materialized, and the lack of confidence among investors is palpable. When Cook presented the latest smartphones in September, the iPhone 5c and the iPhone 5s, Apple's stock fell 10 percent. A year ago the company's stock price was at $702 a share, making Apple the world's most valuable corporation. Today, it's down more than 25 percent from that peak.
Comparing anyone with Steve Jobs is unfair. And during his two years as Apple's chief executive, Cook has taken pains to point out that Jobs himself made it clear to him that he didn't want Cook running Apple the way he thought Jobs would want to, but the way Cook thought it should be done. It hardly needed to be said. When you look back at how the iPhone came to be, it's clear that it had everything to do with the unreasonable demands — and unusual power — of an inimitable man.
It's hard to overstate the gamble Jobs took when he decided to unveil the iPhone back in January 2007. Not only was he introducing a new kind of phone — something Apple had never made before — he was doing so with a prototype that barely worked. Even though the iPhone wouldn't go on sale for another six months, he wanted the world to want one right then. In truth, the list of things that still needed to be done was enormous. A production line had yet to be set up. Only about a hundred iPhones even existed, all of them of varying quality. Some had noticeable gaps between the screen and the plastic edge; others had scuff marks on the screen. And the software that ran the phone was full of bugs.
The iPhone could play a section of a song or a video, but it couldn't play an entire clip reliably without crashing. It worked fine if you sent an e-mail and then surfed the Web. If you did those things in reverse, however, it might not. Hours of trial and error had helped the iPhone team develop what engineers called "the golden path," a specific set of tasks, performed in a specific way and order, that made the phone look as if it worked.
But even when Jobs stayed on the golden path, all manner of last-minute workarounds were required to make the iPhone functional. On announcement day, the software that ran Grignon's radios still had bugs. So, too, did the software that managed the iPhone's memory. And no one knew whether the extra electronics Jobs demanded the demo phones include would make these problems worse.
Jobs wanted the demo phones he would use onstage to have their screens mirrored on the big screen behind him. To show a gadget on a big screen, most companies just point a video camera at it, but that was unacceptable to Jobs. The audience would see his finger on the iPhone screen, which would mar the look of his presentation. So he had Apple engineers spend weeks fitting extra circuit boards and video cables onto the backs of the iPhones he would have onstage. The video cables were then connected to the projector, so that when Jobs touched the iPhone's calendar app icon, for example, his finger wouldn't appear, but the image on the big screen would respond to his finger's commands. The effect was magical. People in the audience felt as if they were holding an iPhone in their own hands. But making the setup work flawlessly, given the iPhone's other major problems, seemed hard to justify at the time.
The software in the iPhone's Wi-Fi radio was so unstable that Grignon and his team had to extend the phones' antennas by connecting them to wires running offstage so the wireless signal wouldn't have to travel as far. And audience members had to be prevented from getting on the frequency being used. "Even if the base station's ID was hidden" — that is, not showing up when laptops scanned for Wi-Fi signals — "you had 5,000 nerds in the audience," Grignon says. "They would have figured out how to hack into the signal." The solution, he says, was to tweak the AirPort software so that it seemed to be operating in Japan instead of the United States. Japanese Wi-Fi uses some frequencies that are not permitted in the U.S.
There was less they could do to make sure the phone calls Jobs planned to make from the stage went through. Grignon and his team could only ensure a good signal, and then pray. They had AT&T, the iPhone's wireless carrier, bring in a portable cell tower, so they knew reception would be strong. Then, with Jobs's approval, they preprogrammed the phone's display to always show five bars of signal strength regardless of its true strength. The chances of the radio's crashing during the few minutes that Jobs would use it to make a call were small, but the chances of its crashing at some point during the 90-minute presentation were high. "If the radio crashed and restarted, as we suspected it might, we didn't want people in the audience to see that," Grignon says. "So we just hard-coded it to always show five bars."
None of these kludges fixed the iPhone's biggest problem: it often ran out of memory and had to be restarted if made to do more than a handful of tasks at a time. Jobs had a number of demo units onstage with him to manage this problem. If memory ran low on one, he would switch to another while the first was restarted. But given how many demos Jobs planned, Grignon worried that there were far too many potential points of failure. If disaster didn't strike during one of the dozen demos, it was sure to happen during the grand finale, when Jobs planned to show all the iPhone's top features operating at the same time on the same phone. He'd play some music, take a call, put it on hold and take another call, find and e-mail a photo to the second caller, look up something on the Internet for the first caller and then return to his music. "Me and my guys were all so nervous about this," Grignon says. "We only had 128 megabytes of memory in those phones" — maybe the equivalent of two dozen large digital photographs — "and because they weren't finished, all these apps were still big and bloated."
Jobs rarely backed himself into corners like this. He was well known as a taskmaster, seeming to know just how hard he could push his staff so that it delivered the impossible. But he always had a backup, a Plan B, that he could go to if his timetable was off.
But the iPhone was the only cool new thing Apple was working on. The iPhone had been such an all-encompassing project at Apple that this time there was no backup plan. "It was Apple TV or the iPhone," Grignon says. "And if he had gone to Macworld with just Apple TV" — a new product that connected iTunes to a television set — "the world would have said, 'What the heck was that?' "
The idea that one of the biggest moments of his career might implode made Grignon's stomach hurt. By 2007 he'd spent virtually his entire career at Apple or companies affiliated with it. While at the University of Iowa in 1993, he and his friend Jeremy Wyld reprogrammed the Newton MessagePad to wirelessly connect to the Internet. Even though the Newton would not succeed as a product, many still regard it as the first mainstream hand-held computer, and their hack was quite a feat back then; it helped them both get jobs at Apple. Wyld ended up on the Newton team, while Grignon worked in Apple's famous R. & D. lab — the Advanced Technology Group — on videoconferencing technology.
By 2000 Grignon had found his way to Pixo, a company started by a former Apple software developer that was building operating systems for cellphones and other small devices. When Pixo's software ended up in the first iPod in 2001, Grignon found himself back at Apple again.
By then, thanks to his work at Pixo, he'd become prominent for two other areas of expertise besides videoconferencing technology: computer radio transmitters (Wi-Fi and Bluetooth) and the workings of software inside small hand-held devices like cellphones. Grignon moves in an entirely different world from that inhabited by most software engineers in the valley. Most rarely have to think about whether their code takes up too much space on a hard drive or overloads a chip's abilities. Hardware on desktop and laptop computers is powerful, modifiable and cheap; memory, hard drives and even processors can be upgraded inexpensively; and computers are either connected to electrical outlets or giant batteries. In Grignon's area of embedded software, the hardware is fixed. Code that is too big won't run. Meanwhile, a tiny battery — which might power a laptop for a couple of minutes — needs enough juice to last all day. When work on the iPhone began at the end of 2004, Grignon had a perfect set of skills to become one of the early engineers on the project.
Now, in 2007, he was emotionally exhausted. He'd gained 50 pounds. He'd put stress on his marriage. The iPhone team discovered early on that making a phone didn't resemble building computers or iPods at all. "It was very dramatic," Grignon says. "It had been drilled into everyone's head that this was the next big thing to come out of Apple. So you put all these supersmart people with huge egos into very tight, confined quarters, with that kind of pressure, and crazy stuff starts to happen."
Remarkably, Jobs had to be talked into having Apple build a phone at all. It had been a topic of conversation among his inner circle almost from the moment Apple introduced the iPod in 2001. The conceptual reasoning was obvious: consumers would rather not carry two or three devices for e-mail, phone calls and music if they could carry one. But every time Jobs and his executives examined the idea in detail, it seemed like a suicide mission. Phone chips and bandwidth were too slow for anyone to want to surf the Internet and download music or video over a cellphone connection. E-mail was a fine function to add to a phone, but Research in Motion's BlackBerry was fast locking up that market.
Above all, Jobs didn't want to partner with any of the wireless carriers. Back then the carriers expected to dominate any partnership with a phone maker, and because they controlled the network, they got their way. Jobs, a famed control freak, couldn't imagine doing their bidding. Apple considered buying Motorola in 2003, but executives quickly concluded it would be too big an acquisition for the company then. (The two companies collaborated unsuccessfully a couple of years later.)
But by the fall of 2004, doing business with the carriers was starting to seem less onerous. Sprint was beginning to sell its wireless bandwidth wholesale. This meant that by buying and reselling bandwidth from Sprint, Apple could become its own wireless carrier — what's known as a "mobile virtual network operator." Apple could build a phone and barely have to deal with the carriers at all. Disney, on whose board Jobs sat, was already in discussions with Sprint about just such a deal to provide its own wireless service. Jobs was asking a lot of questions about whether Apple should pursue one as well. The deal Apple ultimately signed with Cingular (later acquired by AT&T) in 2006 took more than a year to hammer out, but it would prove easy compared to what Apple went through just to build the device.
Many executives and engineers, riding high from their success with the iPod, assumed a phone would be like building a small Macintosh. Instead, Apple designed and built not one but three different early versions of the iPhone in 2005 and 2006. One person who worked on the project thinks Apple then made six fully working prototypes of the device it ultimately sold — each with its own set of hardware, software and design tweaks. Some on the team ended up so burned out that they left the company shortly after the first phone hit store shelves. "It was like the first moon mission," says Tony Fadell, a key executive on the project. (He started his own company, Nest, in 2010.) "I'm used to a certain level of unknowns in a project, but there were so many new things here that it was just staggering."
Jobs wanted the iPhone to run a modified version of OS X, the software that comes with every Mac. But no one had ever put a gigantic program like OS X on a phone chip before. The software would have to be a tenth its usual size. Millions of lines of code would have to be stripped out or rewritten, and engineers would have to simulate chip speed and battery drain because actual chips weren't available until 2006.
No one had ever put a multitouch screen in a mainstream consumer product before, either. Capacitive touch technology — a "touch" by either a finger or other conductive object completes a circuit — had been around since the 1960s. Capacitive multitouch, in which two or more fingers can be used and independently recognized, was vastly more complicated. Research into it began in the mid-1980s. It was well known, though, that to build the touch-screen Apple put on the iPhone and produce it in volume was a challenge few had the money or guts to take on. The next steps — to embed the technology invisibly in a piece of glass, to make it smart enough to display a virtual keyboard with autocorrect and to make it sophisticated enough to reliably manipulate photos or Web pages on that screen — made it hugely expensive even to produce a working prototype. Few production lines had experience manufacturing multitouch screens. The touch-screens in consumer electronics had typically been pressure-sensitive ones that users pushed with a finger or a stylus. (The PalmPilot and its successors like the Palm Treo were popular expressions of this technology.) Even if multitouch iPhone screens had been easy to make, it wasn't at all clear to Apple's executive team that the features they enabled, like on-screen keyboards and "tap to zoom," were enhancements that consumers wanted.
As early as 2003, a handful of Apple engineers had figured out how to put multitouch technology in a tablet. "The story was that Steve wanted a device that he could use to read e-mail while on the toilet — that was the extent of the product spec," says Joshua Strickon, one of the earliest engineers on that project. "But you couldn't build a device with enough battery life to take out of the house, and you couldn't get a chip with enough graphics capability to make it useful. We spent a lot of time trying to figure out just what to do." Before joining Apple in 2003, Strickon had built a multitouch device for his master's thesis at M.I.T. But given the lack of consensus at Apple about what to do with the prototypes he and his fellow engineers developed, he says, he left the company in 2004 thinking it wasn't going to do anything with that technology.
Tim Bucher, one of Apple's top executives at the time and the company's biggest multitouch proponent, says part of the problem was that the prototypes they were building used software, OS X, that was designed to be used with a mouse, not a finger. "We were using 10- or 12-inch screens with Mac-mini-like guts . . . and then you would launch these demos that would do the different multitouch gestures. One demo was a keyboard application that would rise from the bottom — very much what ended up shipping in the iPhone two years later. But it wasn't very pretty. It was very much wires, chewing gum and baling wire."
Few even thought about making touch-screen technology the centerpiece of a new kind of phone until Jobs started really pushing the idea in mid-2005. "He said: 'Tony, come over here. Here's something we're working on. What do you think? Do you think we could make a phone out of this?' " Fadell says, referring to a demo Jobs was playing with. "It was huge. It filled the room. There was a projector mounted on the ceiling, and it would project the Mac screen onto this surface that was maybe three or four feet square. Then you could touch the Mac screen and move things around and draw on it." Fadell was aware of the touch-screen prototype, but not in great detail, because it was a Mac product, and he ran the iPod division. "So we all sat down and had a serious discussion about it — about what could be done."
Fadell had strong doubts about shrinking such an enormous prototype so much and then manufacturing it. But he also knew better than to say no to Steve Jobs. He was one of Apple's superstars, having joined the company in 2001 as a consultant to help build the first iPod, and he didn't get there by being timid in the face of thorny technological problems. By 2005, with iPod sales exploding, he had become, at 36, arguably the single most important line executive at the company.
"I understood how it could be done," Fadell says. "But it's one thing to think that, and another to take a room full of special, one-off gear and make a million phone-size versions of that in a cost-effective, reliable manner." The to-do list was exhausting just to think about. "You had to go to LCD vendors who knew how to embed technology like this in glass; you had to find time on their line; and then you had to come up with compensation and calibrating algorithms to keep the pixel electronics from generating all kinds of noise in the touch-screen" — which sat on top of the LCD. "It was a whole project just to make the touch-screen device. We tried two or three ways of actually making the touch-screen until we could make one in enough volume that would work."
Shrinking OS X and building a multitouch screen, while innovative and difficult, were at least within the skills Apple had already mastered as a corporation. No one was better equipped to rethink OS X's design. Apple knew LCD manufacturers because it put an LCD in every laptop and iPod. Mobile-phone physics was an entirely new field, however, and it took those working on the iPhone into 2006 to realize how little they knew. Apple built testing rooms and equipment to test the iPhone's antenna. It created models of human heads, with viscous stuff inside to approximate the density of human brains, to help measure the radiation that users might be exposed to from using the phone. One senior executive believes that more than $150 million was spent creating the first iPhone.
From the start of the project, Jobs hoped that he would be able to develop a touch-screen iPhone running OS X similar to what he ended up unveiling. But in 2005 he had no idea how long that would take. So Apple's first iPhone looked very much like the joke slide Jobs put up when introducing the real iPhone — an iPod with an old-fashioned rotary dial on it. The prototype really was an iPod with a phone radio that used the iPod click wheel as a dialer. "It was an easy way to get to market, but it was not cool like the devices we have today," Grignon says.
The second iPhone prototype in early 2006 was much closer to what Jobs would ultimately introduce. It incorporated a touch-screen and OS X, but it was made entirely of brushed aluminum. Jobs and Jonathan Ive, Apple's design chief, were exceedingly proud of it. But because neither of them was an expert in the physics of radio waves, they didn't realize they created a beautiful brick. Radio waves don't travel through metal well. "I and Rubén Caballero" — Apple's antenna expert — "had to go up to the boardroom and explain to Steve and Ive that you cannot put radio waves through metal," says Phil Kearney, an engineer who left Apple in 2008. "And it was not an easy explanation. Most of the designers are artists. The last science class they took was in eighth grade. But they have a lot of power at Apple. So they ask, 'Why can't we just make a little seam for the radio waves to escape through?' And you have to explain to them why you just can't."
Jon Rubinstein, Apple's top hardware executive at the time, says there were even long discussions about how big the phone would be. "I was actually pushing to do two sizes — to have a regular iPhone and an iPhone mini like we had with the iPod. I thought one could be a smartphone and one could be a dumber phone. But we never got any traction on the small one, and in order to do one of these projects, you really need to put all your wood behind one arrow."
The iPhone project was so complex that it occasionally threatened to derail the entire corporation. Many top engineers in the company were being sucked into the project, forcing slowdowns in the timetables of other work. Had the iPhone been a dud or not gotten off the ground at all, Apple would have had no other big products ready to announce for a long time. And worse, according to a top executive on the project, the company's leading engineers, frustrated by failure, would have left Apple.
Compounding all the technical challenges, Jobs's obsession with secrecy meant that even as they were exhausted by 80-hour workweeks, the few hundred engineers and designers working on the iPhone couldn't talk about it to anyone else. If Apple found out you'd told a friend in a bar, or even your spouse, you could be fired. In some cases, before a manager could ask you to join the project, you had to sign a nondisclosure agreement in his office. Then, after he told you what the project was, you had to sign another document confirming that you had indeed signed the NDA and would tell no one. "We put a sign on over the front door of the purple dorm" — the iPhone building — "that said 'fight club,' because the first rule of fight club is you don't talk about fight club," Scott Forstall, Apple's senior vice president of iOS software until last October, testified in 2012 during the Apple v. Samsung trial. "Steve didn't want to hire anyone from outside of Apple to work on the user interface, but he told me I could hire anyone in the company," Forstall said. "So I'd bring them into my office, sit them down and tell them: 'You are a superstar in your current role. I have another project that I want you to consider. I can't tell you what it is. All I can say is that you will have to give up nights and weekends and that you will work harder than you have ever worked in your life."
One of the early iPhone engineers says, "My favorite part was what all the vendors said the day after the unveiling." Big companies like Marvell, which made the Wi-Fi radio chip, and CSR, which provided the Bluetooth radio chip, hadn't been told they were going to be in a new phone. They thought they were going to be in a new iPod. "We actually had fake schematics and fake industrial designs," the engineer says. Grignon says that Apple even went as far as to impersonate employees of another company when they traveled, especially to Cingular. "The whole thing was you didn't want the receptionist or whoever happens to be walking by to see all the badges lying out" with Apple's name on them.
One of the most obvious manifestations of Jobs's obsession with secrecy were the locked-down areas on the company's campus — places that those not working on the iPhone could no longer go. "Steve loved this stuff," Grignon says. "He loved to set up division. But it was a big '[expletive] you' to the people who couldn't get in. Everyone knows who the rock stars are in a company, and when you start to see them all slowly get plucked out of your area and put in a big room behind glass doors that you don't have access to, it feels bad."
Even people within the project itself couldn't talk to one another. Engineers designing the electronics weren't allowed to see the software. When they needed software to test the electronics, they were given proxy code, not the real thing. If you were working on the software, you used a simulator to test hardware performance.
And no one outside Jobs's inner circle was allowed into Jonathan Ive's wing on the first floor of Building 2. The security surrounding Ive's prototypes was so tight that some employees believed the badge reader called security if you tried to enter and weren't authorized. "It was weird, because it wasn't like you could avoid going by it. It was right off the lobby, behind a big metal door. Every now and then you'd see the door open and you'd try to look in and see, but you never tried to do more than that," says an engineer whose first job out of college was working on the iPhone. Forstall said during his testimony that some labs required you to "badge in" four times.
The pressure to meet Jobs's deadlines was so intense that normal discussions quickly devolved into shouting matches. Exhausted engineers quit their jobs — then came back to work a few days later once they had slept a little. Forstall's chief of staff, Kim Vorrath, once slammed her office door so hard it got stuck and locked her in, and co-workers took more than an hour to get her out. "We were all standing there watching it," Grignon says. "Part of it was funny. But it was also one of those moments where you step back and realize how [expletive] it all is."
When Jobs started talking about the iPhone on Jan. 9, 2007, he said, "This is a day I have been looking forward to for two and a half years." Then he regaled the audience with myriad tales about why consumers hated their cellphones. Then he solved all their problems — definitively.
As Grignon and others from Apple sat nervously in the audience, Jobs had the iPhone play some music and a movie clip to show off the phone's beautiful screen. He made a phone call to show off the phone's reinvented address book and voice mail. He sent a text and an e-mail, showing how easy it was to type on the phone's touch-screen keyboard. He scrolled through a bunch of photos, showing how simple pinches and spreads of two fingers could make the pictures smaller or bigger. He navigated The New York Times's and Amazon's Web sites to show that the iPhone's Internet browser was as good as the one on his computer. He found a Starbucks with Google Maps — and called the number from the stage — to show how it was impossible to get lost with an iPhone.
By the end, Grignon wasn't just relieved; he was drunk. He'd brought a flask of Scotch to calm his nerves. "And so there we were in the fifth row or something — engineers, managers, all of us — doing shots of Scotch after every segment of the demo. There were about five or six of us, and after each piece of the demo, the person who was responsible for that portion did a shot. When the finale came — and it worked along with everything before it, we all just drained the flask. It was the best demo any of us had ever seen. And the rest of the day turned out to be just a [expletive] for the entire iPhone team. We just spent the entire rest of the day drinking in the city. It was just a mess, but it was great."


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I won't believe it until I see a stupid video!
Behold for the announcement video is herehttps://twitter.com/Everton/status/953673146888056832
OmfgWe've signed theo WalcottI had no idea, I'm so shockedWow
BBC:http://www.bbc.com/sport/football/427152233.5 year contract, I suppose it makes sense, but kinda short.
As underwhelming as the manager announcement was.There'll probably be a take on Duran Duran's Rio, where the name is changed to Theo, can't wait for that.Someone please make this nightmare end.
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|Oracle® OLAP DML Reference
11g Release 2 (11.2)
Part Number E17122-05
|View PDF
The YRABSTART option sets the specific 100-year period associated with years that are read or displayed using a two-digit abbreviation.
Data Type
YRABSTART = year
A four-digit
INTEGER expression that indicates the year at which the 100-year period begins. You can specify any value in the range 1000 to 9999. However, when you specify a value greater than 9900 for year, requests to read or display two-digit year values that correspond to a year later than 9999 result in a return value of
NA. The default is 1950; two-digit year abbreviations are interpreted as being in the range 1950 to 2049 unless a different range is set through YRABSTART.
Example 5-115 Using the Default Value
The following statements specify a date format and send output to the current outfile.
DATEFORMAT = '<Mtextl> <d>, <yyyy>' SHOW MAKEDATE(96 9 13)
These statements produce the following output.
September 13, 1996


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|« IBM in Ethiopia: it's all about data
|Ethiopia: Teddy Afro to perform at New York's B.B. King Blues Club on Feb 22 »
Linking Ethiopia's Bean Farmers to Formal Markets
The informal market is likely to continue to dominate in smallholder dried beans due to the highly dispersed and variable nature of production
Linking Ethiopia's Bean Farmers to Formal Markets
Source: IRIN
Addis Ababa — Over the years, small-scale farmers growing white pea beans in Ethiopia have sold their produce through the informal market, relying largely on middlemen who dictate prices and walk away with huge profits, often leaving the farmers in poverty.
"When smallholders sell their produce individually, they are easily shortchanged by middlemen who give them very little money for their products, and they can hardly provide for their families despite their hard work on the farms," Legesse Dadi, agricultural project manager for Catholic Relief Services in Ethiopia, told IRIN.
Some traders on the informal market are also more likely to tamper with weighing scales, which means farmers get even less money for their produce.
"In a disorganized marketing system, farmers rarely get value for their farm produce," Dadi added.
But between 2008 and 2011, a project called New Business Models for Sustainable Trading Relationships helped link multinational food companies to smallholders in Africa. It enabled some 15,000 white-pea-bean farmers - there are about 450,000 bean farmers in Ethiopia - to access formal export markets by producing better crops and organizing themselves into small cooperatives through which to sell their products and bargain for better prices.
Rising incomes
Many of the smallholders own half-hectare plots that can, during a good season, produce 500kg to 800kg of white pea beans.
But while smallholders often have the soils and skills to supply high-quality products to the food industry, according to a recent report by the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), "their entry into these markets is constrained by increasingly stringent standards, volatile prices and lack of credit".
The farmers' problems had been exacerbated by the absence of a ready market for white pea beans, which are not locally consumed, experts say.
"Traditionally, white pea beans have very few consumers within Ethiopia, and this means the farmers have to rely on [the] export market... which they have very little access to," Dadi said.
The project, facilitated by Catholic Relief Services, the International Institute for Environment and Development, Rainforest Alliance and the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture helped address these issues. Farmers received assistance organizing cooperatives, which enabled them to sell in bulk and improve their bargaining power. They were also given access to storage facilities.
The government contributed by providing agricultural extension officers to teach farmers modern crop-handling methods. The bean farmers also received access to canning factories in the UK, which increased their productivity and product quality.
Five years ago, smallholders would receive US$0.12 from middlemen for 1kg of white pea beans; today the same quantity, sold on the formal market, fetches them $0.37.
According to the Sustainable Food Lab, one of the organizations involved in implementing the project, 100kg bags of white pea beans now earn farmers twice the income they get from the same amount of sorghum, the staple crop that is typically intercropped with beans.
On average, farmers are able to earn a profit of $144 and $187 per household per harvest season, an improvement over profits made on the informal market.
Gains all around
Experts say that access to formal markets, which allows farmers to fetch better prices, is an important element in increasing their income and quality of produce. Even so, the informal market cannot be wished away.
"The informal market is likely to continue to dominate in smallholder dried beans due to the highly dispersed and variable nature of production," Bill Vorley, principal researcher on sustainable markets group at IIED, told IRIN via email.
"But the formal market and its associated investments ... lead to improvements in productivity and income. It also generates higher-quality jobs in sorting and processing," he added.
For vulnerable small scale farmers, better market linkages will have enormous benefits.
"If farmers have a reliable market, and the benefits of cash cropping are shared fairly between genders, it is entirely logical for households to achieve food security (and cash income, e.g., for education and health) through committing some of their land to cash crops," Vorley said.
A 2009 paper emphasized that small-scale farmers have much to gain when "risk, responsibilities and benefits" are shared among smallholders and traders. "It is not only market inclusion that is the goal, but fair and equitable inclusion, whereby smallholders can improve their economic opportunity through raising product quality and meeting or exceeding market standards," it said.
This entry was posted on February 7th, 2013 at 19:45 by apache and is filed under Agriculture.
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The Flyers have waived backup goalie Michael Leighton and forward Tom Sestito.
The Leighton decision seems to indicate that Brian Boucher will be the backup for the Flyers behind Ilya Bryzgalov.
If Leighton and Sestito are not claimed off waivers by noon tomorrow, the Flyers can send them to the Phantoms, their minor league team.
Leighton had played only one game for the Flyers this season, a 5-1 loss at Tampa Bay on Jan. 27.


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The Central Connecticut women's basketball team hosts Siena tonight at Detrick Gym. The Blue Devils (3-3) and the Saints (3-2) last played early in the 2011-12 season, a 51-47 CCSU victory at Detrick Gym. Tip-off for tonight's game is scheduled for 7 p.m.
Here are some notes on the Blue Devils heading into tonight's game:
Tonight • The Blue Devils (3-3) return to Detrick Gym to host MAAC member Siena (3-2). The Blue Devils split a pair of road games last week with a victory over Hartford (82-50) and a loss to La Salle (71-60). However, now the Blue Devils are back home where they are 2-0 this season and 13-3 since the start of last season.
Up Next • The Blue Devils will look to stay undefeated against the America East with a trip to Vermont on Sunday, Dec. 8 and then hosting UMass Lowell on Sunday, Dec. 15. After that the Blue Devils will travel to MAAC foe Rider on Dec. 21, before closing December and non-conference play at home against Hofstra on Dec. 30.
Series History • The Saints hold a 3-2 advantage in the all-time Division I series between these schools. The last meeting came during the 2011-12 season with the Blue Devils earning a 51-47 victory at Detrick Gym. CCSU also won 57-48 in overtime at Siena in November of 2010. The other three meetings came in 1993-94, 94-95 and 95-96.
Last Week • The Blue Devils split a pair of road games last week with a victory over Hartford and a loss to La Salle. Last Tuesday, the Blue Devils traveled to Hartford and defeated the Hawks 82-50. Junior Kaley Watras led the way with 24 points. On Saturday, CCSU fell at Atlantic-10 memeber La Salle 71-60. Sophomore Kayla Miller contributed career-highs of 10 points and nine rebounds in a near double-double performance.
Big Win Over Hartford • The Blue Devils led 40-20 at the half and then pulled away for a 82-50 victory over the Hawks last Wednesday. Junior Kaley Watras connected for a season-high 24 points, while sophomore Amanda Harrington scored 13 points and secured eight rebounds, including five on the offensive glass. Senior Jessica Babe filled up her stat line with nine points, eight rebounds, eight assists, a steal and a block. Babe also had just one turnover in 32 minutes of action.
Career-Highs for the Sophomores • Three CCSU sophomores, TehJahne Malone, Nicole Ferguson, and Amanda Harrington, have set career-highs for points over the last two games. Malone scored 11 off the bench against New Hampshire, Ferguson scored 11 off the bench against Hartford and Harrington put in 13 in her second career start, which came Tuesday against Hartford. In addition, sophomore Kayla Miller matched her career-high with 10 points against La Salle and set a new high with nine rebounds.
32-Point Victory • The 32-point margin of victory against Hartford is the most for the Blue Devils since topping New Hampshire by 39 points on Nov. 27, 2011. CCSU earned a 83-44 victory over the Wildcats that day. The margin of victory was also CCSU's largest ever over the Hawks. The 82 points against Hartford are also the most for CCSU since scoring 82 against Wagner on Jan. 19, 2013.
Great at Home • CCSU starts the 2013-14 home campaign at 2-0, a familiar spot for the Blue Devils who were 11-3 at home last season, including 8-1 in NEC home games. This is nothing new for CCSU who is 31-11 at home over the last three plus seasons. Under head coach Beryl Piper the Blue Devils are 5-2 in home openers, with four straight home opener victories.


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Sophomore Rob Hollomon led the Central Connecticut football team to a 32-30 victory with a 207 rushing yard, 307 all-purpose yard performance. Hollomon also accounted for three touchdowns in the Blue Devils' 32-30 victory over the Red Flash of Saint Francis (PA).
A 73-yard touchdown reception by senior Anthony Julbes from redshirt freshman quarterback Nick SanGiacomo and a 33-yard field goal by senior Juan Duque in the fourth quarter helped the Blue Devils earn a 32-30 victory.
The Blue Devils were holding a one point lead before SanGiacomo found Julbes over the middle of the field on a second-and-10 play. Julbes broke to the outside and ran up the sideline untouched for the long score.
On the next Blue Devil possession Duque connected for his sixth field goal of the season, which put CCSU up by nine points with 5:39 remaining in the game.
Saint Francis answered on its next play from scrimmage when quarterback John Kelly found Franklyn Williamson open over the middle of the field for a 61-yard touchdown that cut the CCSU deficit to 32-30.
The Blue Devils were able to run out the clock on their next possession. Hollomon ran the ball three times on the final drive as he increased his rushing total for the day to 207 yards.
Hollomon scored the Blue Devils' first three touchdowns of the game on the ground. He rushed for a 5-yard touchdown early in the second quarter and then broke a 49-yard score late in the half. Hollomon also opened the scoring in the third quarter with a 45-yard touchdown run.
Hollomon also caught a pair of passes for 80 yards and returned a punt 20 yards to finish with 307 all-purpose yards for the second consecutive week.
Saint Francis scored a pair of touchdowns in the first quarter, but junior Chris Linares blocked Saint Francis' second PAT attempt. After blocking the kick, Linares scooped up the loose ball and returned it for a 2-point score. Linares' big special teams play helped swing the momentum back in the Blue Devils' favor.
SanGiacomo did not start at quarterback, but he played most of the game and helped the CCSU offense get going in the second quarter. He threw for 212 yards on eight-of-14 passing and a touchdown. The touchdown pass to Julbes was the longest of his career.
The Blue Devil defense was led by senior linebackers D.J. Radich and Lorenzo Baker. Radich had a game-high 13 tackles and Baker finished with 10. Both players had six individual stops in the game.
Junior Darnell Benjamin recorded a sack and junior Chris Williams and redshirt freshman Mark Robinson combined for a second. The Blue Devil defensive line applied pressure throughout the game.
The back-to-back 200 yard rushing games by Hollomon are the first since Justise Hairston went for 332 against Saint Francis (PA) and 256 against Robert Morris during the 2006 season.
The Blue Devils return to action next Saturday at Monmouth. The game is schedule for 1 p.m. and fans can listen live on Fox Sports Radio 1410 AM and the iHeart Radio app.


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Tuesday, February 24, 2009
A Working Mommy's Lament
Eldest is still sick. Apparently it's not a 24-hour bug. When I left for work this morning, he complained that his belly still hurt, but I figured he was probably just hungry after not ingesting much of anything all day yesterday.
I cut up an apple for him (per his request) and headed out the door.
Hubby called as I was driving to the train station.
"He's doubled over with stomach pains, but I kinda think he's being dramatic."
I advised Hubby that he should just send him on to school, with instructions to tell his teacher if he wasn't feeling well. (Last week was winter vacation, so I thought he may have been struggling with having to transition back to school after missing the first day back.)
30 minutes later, another phone call.
"He just vomited the entire apple! What am I gonna do? I missed work yesterday and can't miss another day!"
(Meanwhile, I'M ON THE TRAIN, HEADED INTO BOSTON thinking: "Well, what do you want ME to do???")
*sigh* Bring on the Mommy Guilt.
So the babysitter came. (We truly didn't want her, and subsequently her family, to be exposed to the throw-up bug. It's one thing if the boyz have colds; vomit is a whole different ballgame.) But she's truly a gem and has reassured me twice already today that she doesn't mind being there, that he's managed to keep down some tea and toast, and that he seems to be perking up.
Nonetheless, I'm struggling, yet again, with Balance.
I hate the fact that the economy sucks and that due to the choices Hubby and I have made in the past, that I HAVE to work right now;
I hate the fact that I have to work so far away from the Trenches in order to be paid a salary that makes it worthwhile to work full-time while paying for two preschool tuitions plus childcare; and
Mostly, I just hate the fact that when I have a sick child, I can't just automatically take care of him, foregoing everything else.
11 comments:
- Amy said...
I stand in full solidarity and sympathy with this. I know this feeling.
I hope he's well soon.
- Manic Mommy said...
Thanks for the reminder that I'm not just home to mediate tantrums. We're all trying to do what's best for our families.
Working is what's best for your family right now. It just doesn't feel like it today.
Hope Eldest is up and at 'em tomorrow!
- Claire said...
Ugh. I feel that mommy guilt and stress over finding balance EVERY SINGLE DAY. I work as a teacher BARELY making more than I spend in childcare for my 2 girls, yet the little bit I bring home does actually make a difference. However, I still know that being a stay-at-home mom is the hardest full-time job ever, so I am a little thankful that it's not mine.
Hope he gets better soon!
- Anonymous said...
Found your blog via The Eleventh.
Nice writing. Love the humor. Will be back.
- A Christian Mom said...
HUGS! I know your pain. When I was working full time, I felt the same way whenever my daughter was sick.
Now being a SAHM... I find guilt for not working. Guess we can't win either way.
I hope your son feels better soon & the rest of the house, including your babysitter are spared from getting it.
- Judy said...
- Anonymous said...
The "work guilt" way out of this is...
Don't mention at work that you have a sick child at
Start looking a little bit tired (shouldn't be a stretch).
Choose either pale face or flushed and apply makeup accordingly and sparingly.
Sigh a lot. Complain about shortness of breath. Look at little green at the mention of food. (Don't let people see you eat)
Then leave halfway through the work day.
Call in the next morning that you're taking a sick day.
(By now you've probably really worked yourself into a state with the guilt that it's not really lying... you need your mental and spiritual health)
Spend the day on the couch with your buddy and blanket.
Vow to work through a few lunches and coffees in the next few weeks as penance for a grey lie.
And then move on to the next working mother crisis.
- Jessica @ A Bushel and a Peck said...
I am so sorry. I know your pain, I have been there. I have no answers, only sympathy and hope that something changes or gets better. And that Eldest feels better too. Hugs.
- amanda said...
wish i had wise words.
instead sending you healthy vibes :)
- Suburb Sierra said...
We *just* went through this last week. Normally, I work from home but when I have to be in the office it's a 90 mile commute, one way. The one day my daughter is sick is the day I'm hitting the road.
Balance comes in waves and ususally we get knocked off but then stand right back up. I still only remember the best my parents did, not the worst.
- Patois42 said...
Ooooooh, Katie B has a great idea.


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Feet of clay: Let's take back the church
The Rev. John Banks, a New Jersey priest, was recently convicted of molesting an altar boy. He told investigators his vow of celibacy "made no direct mention of abstaining from sex."
Father Banks could be the moral interpreter of our times. True, the first definition of "celibacy" in the dictionary is "refraining from marriage" as part of a religious vow. It's only when you get to the secondary definition that it says anything about sex, and who pays attention to secondary definitions anyway?
That the Catholic Church is boiling over with sex scandals is news only because we live in a litigious society now. The dark secrets have always been there.
Some Catholics still respect and fear the hierarchy of their church, but not as many as in the past. The congregation is starting to see through the church's smokescreen. Priests, cardinals, and popes are just men. They are not holier than thou or I. The priesthood is less particular about who gets in than the Marines are. And in some instances, the church is a refuge for twisted men and women who are way less holier than most of us.
We are supposed to buy into the conceit that these people are anointed by God, when clearly they are appointed by man.
This would come as no surprise to my grandmother. My family has been on the outs with the church for more than four generations. Nana was on to them from the start.
"They have their heart broken by some man, so they become nuns and beat up the children they can never have," she said. She told them that to their face, too, and they locked her in a closet. Although adulterers in the family continued to take communion, the divorced were shown the door. Piety was in appearances.
I'm sure we weren't the only outcast Catholics who perceived some murky humanity under the black cassocks. The vow of poverty, for instance, is a technicality as vague as Father Bank's definition of celibacy. Except for the few who actually go into hostile mission fields, nuns and priests have lodging, vehicles, clothing, transportation, and food provided for them. And the higher they climb in the hierarchy, the more palatial their pads become. Everything needed is provided by the church as part of a lifetime job from which you cannot be fired, no matter how poor your performance.
It didn't seem like a vow of poverty to me, and whenever I was feeling overwhelmed by life, I fantasized about becoming a nun, disappearing into a life where all my basic needs would be provided for. I would be given work I didn't have to interview for and couldn't be fired from. People would treat me with respect and awe. I'd be holy, when you came right down to it. What more could you ask? And who knew you could still have sex on the side, too?
That's always been the fatal flaw in the Catholic design– that the caretakers of the faith marry the church and are perceived by the rest of us as superior for doing so. As if working for a living and raising kids is the easy way out, and their choice the sacrificial one! They purport to be conduits to a God who is already on record as saying we should have no other Gods before Him, and assuring us that we need no intermediaries but Christ.
So who are these black-frocked guys standing between God and us, declaring themselves worthy to hear our confessions, forgive our sins, and bestow blessings? Why are we kissing their rings?
The apostle Peter is Catholicism's founding father, yet nowhere do you find Jesus instructing him to go forth and wear a big hat and sit on a throne in Rome. There is nothing about popes or Vatican cities in the Bible, unless you count the warning about the Whore of Babylon in the Book of Revelations, which comes so close to describing the church that Catholic scholars spin like tops trying to discount it.
The apostles' instructions were to own nothing, accumulate no treasure on earth, and spread the word. Only one– the writer John who wrote several books of the New Testament– died a natural death. The others were variously beheaded, crucified, stabbed, stoned, clubbed, and burned at the stake. It was a religion where the leaders were truly humble, poor, and fearless. How did we stray so far?
I heard a debate on the radio recently on whether Jesus would drive an SUV. Not a single caller knew the right answer.
Jesus would take public transportation. Jesus owned nothing. He paid his taxes with money found inside a fish, rode borrowed donkeys, and made dinner out of donated loaves and fishes.
But somewhere along the line, the church became an institution with real estate, wealth, levels of assumed-to-be chaste bureaucrats living their lives on the company dime. And for this cushy lifestyle, all they had to do was listen to confessions, dole out the Hail Marys, wear elaborate costumes, chant in Latin, and wave pots of smoke. The few who actually did anything self-sacrificing were elevated to literal sainthood because it was such a novelty.
It's time the sidewalk Catholics who feel all of this has gone too far take back the church and rebuild it as a community of believers accountable to God and His law, not the amendments of Vatican revisionism and the mafia of the degenerate priesthood.
Not that it would be a new idea. We have Lutherans and Episcopalians among us. The root of the word Protestant is "protest," after all, but where are those truly humble Protestants who aren't engaged in their own building programs, erecting their own mini-Vaticans? I don't recall Jesus instructing his followers to go into the construction business and pop up houses of worship like McDonald's franchises. We have all fallen short of the ideal as our new Jesus drives a SUV and is adding a gymnasium to the rectory.
Faith is the humility of mankind before God, not the hubris of god-like religious leaders. They were supposed to be guides on the road to faith, not mystic administrators of the business of religion. Under the shroud of false holiness, they have bought into the lie, embraced the power and its corruption, and we let them. And now we are surprised and shocked to discover they are just men after all.
Essays by Richmond-based Mariane Matera appear in numerous publications.


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Straight Center Drive + Top Arch BM 8432/8442
The belt conveyor with top arch is used for transporting all types of unit loads in case of inclines or declines. The arch reduces noise and the impact of materials as they pass over it.The standard belt conveyor is equipped with a drum motor (BM 8442), a gear motor is available as an option (BM 8432). Not suitable for reversing operation.


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kitchen wishlist
Other Stories
11 comments:
I could be extremely happy with those too.ReplyDelete
thank you for my new favorite website. :)ReplyDelete
Looove the String and the whisk!!! So much!ReplyDelete
You have impeccable taste! Love everything thats on this list. We are redoing our kitchen and I can't wait to peel off the four layers of vinyl!!!ReplyDelete
i have wanted that whisk for the LONGEST time, i swear. why aren't all whisks made like that?ReplyDelete
Lots of Finnish Design, that´s nice, though you have good taste : )ReplyDelete
funny how everything on your kitchen wish list is the same as mine :) thanks for always keeping me lusting after beautiful things!ReplyDelete
I love the string shelf, everything is great and the website too. Have a nice day!.ReplyDelete
The Tomado shelf and cas iron pot are my favorite :) But the kitchen...hmmm...not really sure I like it.ReplyDelete
It's nice to see but, is it practical to use? ;)
loving your finds.ReplyDelete
I am so in love with those iitalla jars. I came sososo close to buying some last week when I got some iitalla wine glasses. I'm in love with the pearl gray and the terracota!ReplyDelete
Thank you for your comments, I love hearing from you!
Questions, comments or sponsorship inquires, please contact me via the 'contact' link.


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Health Benefits of Dandelion Root Tea
Since long, the Indian and Chinese cultures have been consuming dandelion root tea owing to its medicinal properties. Both the dandelion flowers and roots can be consumed in different ways to enjoy health benefits.
The roots of the plant are available in fresh or dried form, and liquid extracts, tinctures, tea, and capsules. Whether you plan to make your own fresh dandelion root tea after a weeding session or buy the ready-made version, you are sure to enjoy a number of health benefits, some of which we shall discover now.
First and foremost, dandelion root tea provides nutrition. This tea is rich in various minerals and vitamins that help our body keep functioning normally. Some minerals and vitamins that tea made of dandelion root contains are vitamin A, iron, copper, potassium, magnesium, and calcium.
Improves Digestion
Dandelion root tea also helps improve digestion. If you are experiencing bloating, gas, indigestion, or constipation, then few cups of this amazing tea will improve your digestive system and help it work the way it should. The tea helps clean the system, and unclogs inner organs, leading to better digestion.
Natural Relief to Premenstrual Syndrome
If you suffer from PMS problems, then too this root tea can prove to be of great help. By acting as a hormone and estrogen intruder, dandelion root helps in balancing the hormonal levels. So, if you drink about 2-3 cups dandelion tea during your menstrual cycle, you can enjoy the benefits, and avoid the pain and other associated symptoms.
Dandelion Tea for Detox and Weight Loss
Yet another benefit of dandelion root tea is that it works as a natural laxative and diuretic. It has no calories and so dandelion root tea is great for weight loss. Its root is rich in potassium that helps in urine flow. Thus, it helps prevent problems like blood pressure, urinary tract infection, and is a great remedy for water retention and bloating. It is also a natural laxative and helps the digestive system function normally. Find out how to make dandelion root tea recipe for detox.
Treatment for Various Skin Problems
The tea made using dandelion root is also believed to be an appetite stimulant. It helps revive the appetite of those who are undergoing a treatment for certain types of health conditions, and is thus very useful. This wonderful root tea can also help you get rid of various skin problems. It does so by eliminating toxins from the body that can cause skin troubles like eczema, psoriasis, and acne. If you consume this tea on a daily basis, it can clear your body of such conditions. Check out where to buy organic dandelion root tea bags.
Alleviates Depression
Drinking tea made of dandelion root may even help alleviate fatigue and depression that people experience as a result of stress. So, if you want to avoid such problems, and wish to have a beautiful skin, and happy and healthy life, start drinking dandelion root tea, right from now.
Video on How to Make Dandelion Tea
The post Refreshing Dandelion Root Tea for Cleansing and Weight Loss appeared first on Dandelion Root Tea Blog.


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Can China Save the Amur Tiger?
By Richard Conniff
When Dale Miquelle first went to work with Amur (or Siberian) tigers in the Russian Far East in 1992, wildlife experts expected that the subspecies would be extinct by the end of the 20th century. The population had dipped to as low as 30 individuals in the 1940s before rebounding as a result of strict Soviet wildlife management, to about 200 to 300 animals in the early 1990s. Then the Soviet Union collapsed, taking almost all environmental enforcement down with it. As the ruble and the Far East economy went into free-fall, the tiger's prey species, including deer and wild boar, often wound up in the dinner pots of hungry locals. Commercial poachers targeted the tigers themselves, selling the carcasses for $5,000 or more to the traditional-medicine market just over the border in China.
It was hardly an auspicious time to start the Siberian Tiger Project, a joint Russian-American effort now managed by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). Or maybe it was the best possible time, because 17 years and more than $10 million later, Panthera tigris altaica survives, with a population estimated at 350 to 400 individuals in the wild. This relative success comes against a backdrop of dramatic decline in tiger populations elsewhere. In India this summer, for instance, Panna Nature Reserve announced that its tigers have been completely wiped out by poaching, following the pattern established at Sariska, another prominent Indian nature reserve, in 2005. Tigers worldwide have vanished from 41 percent of the habitat they occupied as recently as 1999, according to a recent study. The total tiger population in the wild is now about 4,500 animals, down from 100,000 a century ago.
So Miquelle, a 1976 Yale College gradu-ate who now heads the WCS Russian program, remains at best cautiously optimistic. He lists three major threats to Amur tigers that never seem to go away—poaching, to supply the lucrative traditional-medicine market; depletion of prey species by hunters; and habitat loss due to a combination of logging, mining, urban expansion and a new highway development likely to split off a key part of the remaining tiger population. These threats come on top of a relatively low reproductive rate and an extremely low level of genetic diversity. (You can find more Amur tigers, and more varied DNA, in zoos than in the wild.) Altogether, it means that no one is likely to declare the Amur tiger back from the brink anytime soon.
But the Amur tiger now seems to stand the best chance of survival among all the tiger subspecies, says John Seidensticker, a Smithsonian zoologist and chair of the Save the Tiger Fund Council. That's both a tribute to the persistence of the Russian-American effort and, he admits, a red flag in the face of India and other Asian nations, where talk about conservation often exceeds results for extremely endangered tiger populations. "I think the Amur tiger has a very good chance of survival if we continue to maintain a high level of political will to support it, and with [Prime Minister Vladimir] Putin's new interest, that looks good."
Putin has made the Amur tiger a symbol of his own status as the strong man of modern Russia. In 2008, he went out with a Siberian Tiger Project team and took the delicate job of firing a tranquilizer dart at a tiger caught in one of the team's leg snares. (Box traps, a safer method of trapping large predators, have not worked with skittish Amur tigers.) No one filmed the shooting, but a Russian television crew claimed that the tiger broke loose and charged before Putin brought it down. Then Putin helped radio-collar the animal. "Putin the tiger tamer," as the BBC billed him, is now planning to host other heads of state from Asian tiger countries for a fall 2010 Global Tiger Summit. World Bank President Robert Zoellick has also pledged his support for the session in Vladivostok. That kind of top-level summit could lead to improvements for tiger conservation across Asia.
But 2010 promises to be a good year for the Amur tiger in particular, with the potential for dramatic expansion of habitat and population. Conservationists and the World Bank are currently working with Chinese officials on a plan to invest in tiger recovery in the same way China committed to panda conservation 30 years ago. That campaign resulted in dramatic improvements for pandas—and a sorely needed environmental success story for China. A similar effort now on behalf of the Amur tiger could restore the subspecies to northeastern China, where it is for all practical purposes extinct, and simultaneously provide a sustainable economic return by revitalizing what is now a badly damaged forest. Noting that 2010 is the year of the tiger in the Chinese calendar, a World Bank official suggests that Chinese leaders attending the Global Tiger Summit are "going to be on the spot to have a story to tell."
The likely backdrop for that story is a vast expanse of potential tiger habitat in Manchuria, on the border with Russia and North Korea. It's now "empty forest," badly degraded by past logging practices and largely devoid of wildlife, and a surprisingly sharp debate has recently broken out about how best to repopulate it. Doctoral student Xuemei Han '07 and Chad Oliver '70, Ph.D. '75, Pinchot Professor of Forestry and Environmental Studies, have proposed fixing the forest to make it more habitable for the deer, boar and other ungulates the tigers require as prey. But Miquelle of WCS says the real problem is stopping people from poaching the prey that's already there. Spending money on forest improvements, he says, is "like you know someone has cancer and you are treating them for an allergy." Oliver, in turn, calls Miquelle's resistance "a willful decision to reject science at the peril of the tiger … not unlike a doctor performing malpractice on a patient because he or she failed to understand a new medical discovery." Understanding how the two sides could get so far apart, when both say they have the recovery of the Amur tiger at heart, requires knowing a bit more about the fierce nature of tigers—and the people who study them.
'The Tiger is God'
The tiger has always had a visceral hold on the human imagination, because it is so massive and menacing and, yet, also so elusive, slipping like a flame through field and forest. Even tiger biologists almost never see the animals they study, though pug marks the size of grapefruits or territorial scratching 10 feet up a tree keep them abundantly alert to the hair-raising presence of tigers. So does the rising tock-tock on their headphones from an approaching radio collar.
We tend to associate the species mainly with India because of the rich mythology and the colorful history of human coexist-ence with tigers there. For instance, the 18th-century Muslim ruler, Tipu Sultan, called himself "the Tiger of Mysore"; sat on a throne in the form of a tiger with fangs bared; sent his soldiers into battle in tiger-striped uniforms; and kept a life-size action figure of a tiger mauling a British soldier, complete with tiger snarls and agonized screaming. His motto was "The tiger is God."
But tigers also once lived from eastern Turkey all the way to Japan and inhabited an extraordinary range of latitudes, from almost 10 degrees south of the equator on the Indonesian island of Bali to 55 degrees north in the Manchuria region of northeastern China. They also managed to thrive in habitats ranging from sea level tropical rainforests to 10,000 feet up in the Himalayas of Bhutan. Naturalists have traditionally divided tigers into eight subspecies, of which three—the Javan, Caspian and Balinese—went extinct in recent decades. But the differences between some of these subspecies are minor and the tax-onomy has often been the subject of dispute.
Early this year, for instance, a study of mitochondrial DNA from Caspian tiger museum specimens showed that they were essentially identical with the Amur tiger, differing by only a single nucleotide. Oxford's Carlos Driscoll and his co-authors theorized that ancestral tigers migrated into Central Asia from China less than 10,000 years ago via the Gansu Corridor (better known as the Silk Road), then spread west to Turkey and east to Siberia. The study added to the critical importance of the surviving population in the Russian Far East by classifying Amur tigers as suitable for reintroduction not just in northeastern China, but all the way across Central Asia to the Caspian Sea. But another study this year also suggested that the value of this population may be imperiled by a genetic divide along geographic lines.
Amur tigers now coexist with humans in a largely forested area roughly the size of England and Wales. Their habitat starts at the Chinese border a little southwest of Vladivostok and runs 600 miles north to the Amur River. It's bounded on the west by the Ussuri River, a tributary of the Amur. In the east, the tigers mostly roam the slopes of the Sikhote-Alin coastal mountain range running down to the Sea of Japan. Only about 10 percent of the Amur tiger's range is protected, with the Sikhote-Alin Zapovednik (or reserve) encompassing a mountainous area the size of Glacier National Park. Fewer than 20 tigers (and a slightly larger population of endangered Amur leopards) also survive along the Chinese border in the Kedrovaya Pad Zapovednik, which is about as big as Washington, D.C.
The two populations are separated by development along a highway corridor connecting the major cities of Vladivostok and Ussuriysk in the south and Khabarovsk in the north. Genetic research led by Michael Russello at the University of British Columbia has recently found extremely low levels of genetic diversity in both populations. Not only are the tigers descended from a handful of ancestors in the 1940s, but they also experienced a population bottleneck about 10,000 years ago. "So they have lived with a lack of genetic diversity for a long time," says Russello, who began his tiger research as a postdoctoral fellow at Yale in the laboratory of co-author Gisella Caccone, a senior research scientist at Yale. But what's most alarming about the results, he says, is that the small southern population, regarded as the natural source for reintroduction of tigers into China, is now almost completely isolated.
"One of the things that really jumps out," says Russello, "is the need to establish a connection between Sikhote-Alin and the southwestern population." Instead, the Russian government is now developing a new highway from the Vladivostok-Ussuriysk corridor to the Chinese border. After extensive lobbying by conservationists, officials recently agreed to preserve at least a vestige of corridor between the two populations by burying a stretch of highway in a tunnel—the first time that sort of accommodation of wildlife has happened in Russia.


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Difficulty Registering? Some people have reported difficulty in registering. If you do not receive notification within four hours that you are registered, please notify us by emailing Kathy at email@example.com or by calling Eva Montibello at 617-742-8555
Where to Park: The Holiday Inn will validate parking garage tickets for conference attendees that commute to the conference each day and park at the Charles River Plaza Parking Garage, located at 175 Cambridge St. The cost of parking, with validation, will be $5 per day. Please be sure to bring your parking ticket to the registration table at the start of each day so that a committee member can have it validated by the hotel. We will have a system in place during the conference to get your ticket back to you.


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As the title states, you will be able to pre order your copy of guild wars 2 very soon. The official date for it is april 10th which will include access to any and all weekend beta tests that they do between then and release. And depending on which package you buy, can include tons of nifty things as expected.
Click here to read the whole story.
This is a pretty big deal because it means that the game is damned near ready to be done. My guess is early fall but don't quote me on that one. And as soon as it is released, this blog will be up and running full speed once again. I'll be back to providing everyone with new and creative ways to make some extra cash in their MMO of choice. As I've said countless times before, even though the game and names are all different, the people are not.
Also GW 2 will introduce a few very interesting dynamics to the standard auction house method of making money. One of those that has been "semi" confirmed is that there will be account wide storage. No more need for a devoted guild bank for all of your dedicated crafters.
In addition to that there will be an AH that allows you to post what you are BUYING instead of what you are selling and people can take your bid, you lose your money and get the items. So potentially, you can buy from the normal AH and then walk right down the road and sell that to somebody else for a profit.
Lastly there is the absence of gathering professions in the traditional sense. You won't need a dedicated miner or skinner because every character is able to gather everything by default which will make farming your initial capital much easier.
Also while I will definitely will be playing with Stokpile as my primary banker, my main will be based on my original guild wars 1 character. I am also considering a different name for my personal guild. I want it to be something short and interesting in that it sounds like it may be a reference to something, but is inherently meaningless. Here is the list of current candidates:
Lunch money
Madam Dorothy
March of penguins
Rose green
Wednesday yesterday
Bubblegum kisses
So to wrap all of this up, an MMO that is sure to shake up the entire genre is coming out quite soon and will provide all of you wonderful AH barons a new challenge. What challenge is that? Reach the gold cap before I do. Ha!


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Killer kisses: Pucker up without biting
Q. What are the riskiest "kisses" of them all? –J.S. Frost
A. The recent rise of interest in vampires, particularly among teens, has brought to the fore the practice of biting another person to draw blood, says Sheril Kirshenbaum in The Science of Kissing.
"Just don't do it," she cautions. Swapping saliva through trading kisses is vastly safer than injecting gobs of potentially dangerous microorganisms into the bloodstream of your beloved. Many of the germs in our mouths are harmless until they break the skin barrier. In fact, doctors consider the human bite to be of greater concern than most snake bites or broken bones and often send human bite victims straight to the emergency room.
Killer kisses of an entirely different sort can strike even a conventional pair when one of them becomes covered with hives or has trouble breathing after coming into contact with trace amounts of food on the other's lips. Allergens like peanut butter or shellfish or split pea soup can kill more than a romantic mood.
Then there was the bizarre case reported in 2009 by Florida's Lee County Health Department, when authorities put out a search for three boys, aged ten to twelve, who had been seen kissing a dead rabid bat.
"Who knows what they were thinking but they were taking a tremendous risk. There is no cure for rabies," a news story reported.
Q. What's the shortest English word in which every vowel is used once and only once? –P. M. Roget
A. There's the everyday "sequoia" and the equally short "eumonia," for "the state of having good laws that are well administered," says Anu Garg in The Dord, the Diglot, and an Avocado or Two. Other short five-vowelers are "eulogia" (eulogies or blessings) and "aerious" (airy), the latter with all the vowels in order. To add the sometime vowel "y," make that "aeriously." And for a word that more than takes the vowel prize, consider "ultrarevolutionaries," which contains two full sets of regular vowels!
Q. A puzzle for you math lovers: Several cats are brought on board a ship to eliminate a rat infestation. Each cat kills exactly the same number of rats, and that number is larger than the number of cats. If a total of 1,111 rats are killed, how many cats were there? –J. Fariello
A. Let C = the number of cats, R = the number of rats killed by each. You know C x R = 1,111. There are only four ways to factor 1,111: 1 x 1,111; 11 x 101; 101 x 11; 1,111 x 1. So C must be 1, 11, 101 or 1,111. Since there were "several" cats, 1 can be eliminated. But if C is 101 or 1,111, then R = 11 or 1 respectively, meaning more cats than rats, so eliminate them as well. Therefore the number of cats must be 11, with each cat dispatching 101 rats (from ScienceIllustrated.Com magazine).
Q. What does the following statement illustrate about the nature of stereotypes? "Heaven is a place with an American house, Chinese food, British police, a German car, and French art. Hell is a place with a Japanese house, Chinese police, British food, German art, and a French car." –B.Connor
A. That's 10 stereotypes in under 50 words! Stereotypes are beliefs about the personal attributes of a group of people, and, as the above quotation shows, can be either positive or negative, say Lee Vussin, Clark McCauley and Yueh-Ting Lee, as reported by David G. Meyers in Social Psychology. The easy understandability of these 10 is testament to their wide currency. An accurate stereotype may actually exhibit "sensitivity to diversity" or "cultural awareness in a multicultural world."
Yet the problem with stereotypes arises when they are over-generalized or just plain wrong. Any germ of truth can be overblown, with individuals in the group varying far more than expected. Now prejudice and discrimination become tragically close at hand.
Send Strange questions to brothers Bill and Rich at email@example.com more on: france


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Casual games make money. The L.A. Times needs money. So, the L.A. Times is adding casual games to its website. That seems to be the logic at work in a new partnership announced today between the newspaper and casual gaming company Arkadium, which makes Facebook games Mahjongg Dimensions and Solitaire Heaven.
Visitors to latimes.com will be able to play titles like Sparks or Monkey Gems on the site's new games page, which was created in the hopes of funneling ad revenue to the SoCal news outlet. The quotes from today's press release pretty much say exactly that:
"Given the ever-rising popularity of casual games, adding Arkadium's titles allows us to further engage latimes.com's users and entice previously untapped gaming enthusiasts to visit our site throughout the day," said The Times Vice President, Digital Revenue Products Jennifer Collins. "We are also creating a previously unavailable opportunity for our advertisers to reach Southern California's casual gaming audience and in the process establish another digital monetization platform."
The weirdest thing about this move is the "if you build it, they will come" logic that's underlying this initiative. Sure, casual game enthusiasts will play content wherever they find it but there's already a juggernaut called Facebook that also serves the social needs of that audience, too. Not that all casual games need to live on Facebook, but the thinking seems to be that there's teeming masses who want their weather, Hollywood deal updates and word-finding games all in one place. It's also odd that a news outlet would host content from a company that they might cover if they haven't already. It'll be interesting to see how integrated Arkadium's games will become across the rest of the L.A. Times' website.


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If you have any questions about TIKVA, we would love to hear about your query here.
You can also follow us on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn.
Charity No: 1151993
I understand the event is physically and mentally intense and will require extreme exertion and may well take me beyond my endurance level particularly at the tough nut level of entry.
I confirm that I am in a fit state of health and not under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
I understand that this event is not suitable for people with heart or respiratory problems.
I understand the above event can be dangerous and the possibility of injury to me and others exists. Skin abrasions, bruising, sprains and hypothermia are common and there exists a strong possibility of broken bones or worse during the event.
I will obey the directions of all instructors, marshals, judges and management at all times before during and after the event whilst on the events property including traffic and parking. I understand that the owners and organisers take no responsibly for the loss theft or damage to any of my property including my vehicle.
I confirm I am nuts enough to participate in one of the longest military style assault courses in the world – THE ULTIMATE TIKVA


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Find Our Latest Video Reviews on YouTube!
If you want to stay on top of all of our video reviews of the latest tech, be sure to check out and subscribe to the Gear Live YouTube channel, hosted by Andru Edwards! It's free!
Tuesday May 12, 2009 11:45 am
Modern Fossils Sculptures
Posted by Jenny Lewis Categories: Accessories, Design, Misc. Tech
I like to think that in the future, the people of that time will come across relics from the 21st century and laugh at how hard our lives were. I can't imagine what technological strides will have been made by then, but thanks to Christopher Locke we can have an idea of what kind of antiquities they'll theoretically be finding. Locke's Modern Fossils sculpture series renders our current (and some previous) technologies in a proprietary concrete mixture, giving them the look of actual fossils. Most of the pieces are for sale and range in price from $45 to $185.
Read More | Heartless Machine
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Bliss ring white gold and diamond
1716,67 €
6500,00 €
6500.00 tax excl.
18-kt (750/1000) white gold 19.65g
19 GVS white diamonds 0.14 ct
Size of the pattern : 2.03 x 1.94 cm
Warning: Last items in stock!
Availability date:
The Blood Diamonds collection, whose design was inspired by Middle-Age crosses, has quickly become a classic for Stone Paris. Its pattern evokes the shape of a dagger, and its name has a strong meaning. The movie Blood Diamond, starring Leonardo Di Caprio, points at the precious stones traffic and child soldiers' exploitation ; then, Marie Poniatowski picks up this term to denounce these shocking practices.
For her spring-summer 2020 collection, she reinterprets the iconic motif of the cross, more rock'n roll than ever, to decline it into two models of ring, earrings and a flexible bangle.


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It looks like Lil Boosie's ongoing trial for first-degree murder trial is going to get worse before it gets any better. A judge has ruled that specific lyrics from one of the Baton Rouge rapper's songs are admissible as evidence in his trial.
According to a recent report from NBC 33 TV, Judge Mike Erwin ruled during a pre-trial hearing this past Tuesday that three specific lyrics from one of Boosie's songs can be used by the prosecution to show personal intent in the murder case. Interrogating officer of the Baton Rouge police Alvin Howard says that the specific lines "187," "murk," and "cake" are references to Boosie allegedly hiring a hitman to murder Terry Boyd in 2009.
The ruling has not come without some resistance from the defense. Boosie's lawyers argue that not only is Officer Howard not an expert witness in rap slang, but that the prosecution may have altered the lyrics of the track in question and thus should not play the song in court. Judge Erwin sustained both of the defense's objections, but allowed the specific lyrics in question to be entered into evidence.
The name of the song in question has yet to be revealed to the general public. If found guilty, Lil Boosie faces a life sentence in prison.
DX will keep you updated as more information comes to light.
RELATED: Anonymous Jury Planned For Lil Boosie's Murder Trial, No Longer Facing Death Penalty


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We've seen the "Harlem Shake," "Call Me Maybe," "Gangnam Style," and "What Does The Fox Say?" become viral dance crazes. Will "Cookie Dance" be next?
The new music video takes place at the home of "Chip Chocolate," a rapper who "loves his batches…of cookies," as he put it to TIME. While he takes a bath in milk wearing a giant chocolate chip cookie on a gold chain necklace, "sexy" Girl Scouts bake cookies on the kitchen counter, tossing around a white powder that we can only hope is flour. Guests are breakdancing all over the house until the cows come home (seriously, look out for the people in cow suits passed out by the pool).
"I love cookies so much that when I eat them, I'm so happy that I start to dance," said Chip Chocolate, played by Jesse Wellens, who also runs a YouTube channel of prank videos. To do the "Cookie Dance," actors lean back, wave their hands in the air, and then lean forward, pretending to "twirl" a cookie in a glass of milk as they shake their hips.
What kind of cookie, you ask? While Chip Chocolate's favorite cookie this week is white macadamia nut, he also raps about Pepperidge Farm's Milano, Mrs. Fields, and Girl Scouts brands. Sample verse:
When I die bury me up on Pepperidge Farms,
With a four sided cookie that's my lucky charm
P-Pop a cookie, I'm sweatin'
Double stuffed so I'm flexin'
Eat samoas from coasts to coast scream dope fresh if you reppin'
And yes, he is hungry to be the new Cookie Monster, and you can sort of tell at the 43-second mark when he dons a fur coat with a sleeve that looks like a bear claw. "Cookie lane is wide open, and I don't think Cookie Monster is holding it down any more," the rapper said. "He's kind of old. So I'm trying to take over the cookie lane and be the next Cookie Monster. I think Chip Chocolate needs to be on Sesame Street doing the cookie dance."
Since the single dropped on iTunes in late September, the "Cookie Dance" has already been performed live in Times Square, and Brooklyn Nets NBA players have done the dance and uploaded their version to YouTube.
And rather than encourage kids to eat junk food, Chip Chocolate argues the "Cookie Dance" is good exercise. "If you eat a cookie, and you dance, you pretty much burn the calories off right there." And he claims the kid-friendly lyrics add another layer of wholesomeness. "Miley Cyrus, you can't enjoy that with your kids," he said, hoping his video is something that kids and their parents can watch "over the holidays, make Christmas cookies, and have fun."
Race you to the cookie jar.


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| 7.8°C Dublin
DAVID Ferrer capitalised on Nicolas Almagro's fragile temperament to hit back from two sets down and clinch a place in the Australian Open semi-finals today.
Almagro had lost all 12 previous meetings with his Spanish compatriot before today and the mental baggage was apparent when he failed to serve out the match three times - once in the third set and then twice in the fourth.
By the fifth, Almagro was a psychological wreck and it was no surprise that Ferrer duly completed a gutsy 4-6 4-6 7-5 7-6 (7/4) 6-2 victory in three hours and 44 minutes to set up a last-four clash with the winner of today's match between Novak Djokovic and Tomas Berdych.
"It was a miracle that I won this match," Ferrer said.
"Nicolas had a lot of chances to beat me but I tried to fight for every point - that is my game. I will always try to fight and do my best.
"In the important moments all the players get nervous, it has also happened to me."
Ferrer, one of the most dogged competitors on tour, played his usual steady game but was simply outplayed by the 10th seed for at least two thirds of an absorbing contest.
The pair share similar styles but Almagro's extra power, especially on the backhand side, consistently gave him the edge.
He was also ruthless when opportunities came his way, breaking once in each of the first three sets at the first opportunity to take him to the brink of victory, serving at two sets and 5-4 up.
It was shaping up to be a landmark performance and result for Almagro, who had never before reached the semi-finals of a grand slam, but then he realised what he was about to achieve and buckled horribly.
Ferrer did nothing special to get to 15-40 and although Almagro got it back to deuce he was powerless when Ferrer converted a third chance.
Almagro's composure was shot and it was no surprise when Ferrer broke again to claim the set and get himself back in the contest.
The fourth was error-ridden. Almagro was still the more aggressive player but continued to struggle when it really mattered.
He twice claimed and then relinquished a break early on but when he earned a third he had another chance to serve it out at 5-4.
But he could not get over the line as Ferrer seized on his jitters to level.
To his credit, Almagro hit straight back, winning a long game on his sixth break point.
But, for a third time, his nerves betrayed him at 6-5 as Ferrer took it into a tie-break and there was a sense of inevitability when he took it 7-4.
By now Almagro was also struggling with a groin injury suffered during the breaker and he had to undergo treatment before the decider got underway.
Ferrer was, in comparison, looking stronger than he had at any stage of the match and it was no surprise when he completed a wonderful comeback to progress through to the last four of a major for a fifth time.
Li Na made it through to her third women's Australian Open semi-final after halting Agnieszka Radwanska's blistering start to 2013.
Radwanska came into the match having won 13 straight matches, a run which included title wins in Auckland and Sydney, but she had no answer to Li's all-or-nothing game.
The Chinese won 7-5 6-3 despite making 40 unforced errors to advance to a last-four clash with Maria Sharapova.
Second seed Sharapova was in scintillating form as she overcame Ekaterina Makarova.
After winning the first set 6-2 in just 31 minutes, Sharapova took the second by the same scoreline to confirm her semi-final berth.


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INDOOR or OUTDOOR
2-Year Warranty
Put the "Wall" around your Corvette and keep it safe from the rain, snow, ice, tree sap, dirt and debris that nag outside parkers. Utilizes an advanced 3-layer design that stands up feature for feature with pricier covers, but costs you less. Year-specific fit features elasticized hem and deep mirror pockets for a glove-like fit and easy installation.
Includes a FREE Storage Bag, Cable & Cable Lock.


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OAKLAND, Calif. -- The Chicago White Sox hope to get out of the rain and snow when they head to California for the start of a three-game series against the Oakland Athletics on Monday night.
Two third-year right-handers -- Chicago's Reynaldo Lopez and Oakland's Daniel Mengden -- are scheduled to be the starting pitchers.
Lopez, coming off two impressive starts, has been the listed starter the past three days, only to have those three games at Minnesota postponed because of bad weather.
He has not pitched since eight days ago, when he limited the Detroit Tigers to two hits and one unearned run in a 1-0 loss.
Lopez was similarly sharp in his season debut, holding the Toronto Blue Jays to two hits and one run, only to see the White Sox lose that game as well, 4-2.
Weather permitting, Lopez will take an 0-1 record and a 0.69 ERA to the mound in his first career start against Oakland.
Mengden, likewise, has never faced the White Sox. And like Lopez, who was acquired from Washington in 2016 for Adam Eaton, he was the prospect imported when the A's sent Scott Kazmir to Houston in 2015.
But the similarities between the two starters end there.
Mengden (1-2, 6.19) has been roughed up in all three starts, with the A's opponent having scored at least six runs in all three games.
He escaped with a win in his last start when Oakland exploded for 16 runs in a 16-6 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers on Wednesday.
That game was on the road.
Mengden has gotten far less support -- both offensively and defensively -- at home, where he has yet to win in 13 career starts, going 0-10.
The A's have made one key error in each of his two home starts this season, leading to an unearned run in each.
"I can only control what I can control, and that's executing and making pitches," Mengden said. "We all want to play well all the way around. I know some of the guys wish they made better plays, and I wish I made better pitches, but that's baseball."
The closest the White Sox have come to baseball in the last three days has been indoor workouts on Friday and Saturday after snow/rainouts in Minnesota. They completed the hat trick with a third straight washout Sunday.
They've won just twice in 10 games since a 2-0 start.
"We all know that in a long season, you are going to have ups and downs," White Sox standout Jose Abreu said of the team's slow start as much as its choppy schedule. "The only way to get over it is to keep your mind positive and to have confidence in yourself and the guys that are around you. That has been my message for all the guys, and we're good."
The A's had lost four of five before Sean Manaea outpitched Felix Hernandez in a 2-1 win in the series finale Sunday at Seattle.


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A tapenade is a spread, most commonly associated with the Provençal area of France. It is used as a hors d'œuvre and spread on crackers, crudités, or crostini. We also like to utilize them in other culinary ways, such as fillings for omelets (with goat cheese!), thinned slightly with white wine for use as a pasta sauce, or as an amazing condiment. Try this as a topping for a hamburger, or in a sandwich instead of mustard and mayonnaise.
Gluten-Free & Vegetarian